Summary: The second preliminary tournament would take place in America. Shamans had to travel to get to Patch Village in three months. A strange girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere and asked Yoh and the gang to travel with her. Who is this strange girl?

Olihime: This is actually my first project a long time ago but since the characters I created seem to be Mary Sues to me, I decided not to continue this. But I really wanted to participate SK-fan7's Contest and I don't have any time to do a new one, so I'll go with this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King. But I own Ayumu and Aiko.

Warnings: May contain Mary Sues depending on what you think of them.

Keys:

"Normal speech"

'Thoughts'


At the airport…

"Hmph, they're late." said Tao Ren with his usual frown, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

His faithful spirit, Bason materialized beside him. "But Young Master, you told them to meet you at 12pm. It's not time yet."

"Coming here early is what you call well-mannered, Bason"

Bason sweatdropped. "Y-Young Master…"

Suddenly, they heard a giggle behind them. "You're just saying that because you feel lonely without them. Isn't that right, Ren-kun?"

Their eyes widened as they quickly turned around to see a girl smiling and standing in front of them. She has golden brown eyes, and her dark brown hair was tied with an orange ribbon into a high ponytail reaching past her shoulder. She was a little bit taller than Ren which annoyed Ren. She was wearing a long, grey hooded coat. She carries a dark blue, backpack.

"Don't worry. I'll keep you company."

Ren frowned. 'Where the heck did she come from?'

"Who are you?" He demanded, scowling at her.

"Don't do that. You'll get wrinkles fast. And before you know it, people will start calling you an old man." The girl giggled, poking his forehead.

He swatted her hand away and glared at the girl as he took out his Kwan Dao, the sharp blade was dangerously close at her neck. "I. Said. Who. Are. You."

However, the girl was not intimidated. She simply smiled and put her hand at the base of the Kwan Dao, pushing it sideways. "Is this what you also call well-mannered by pointing your Kwan Dao at a person's neck?" The girl joked as she pointed at the Kwan Dao.

"Kisama…" Ren growled dangerously and was just about to attack her when he heard voices calling him from behind. He looked back to see Yoh, Manta, Horo Horo and Ryu walking towards them.

"Hey, Ren." Yoh greeted him with a smile.

"Dude, who's that?" asked Horo, staring at the girl out of curiosity.

The girl caught his stare and smiled, waving at him. "Hi, Horokue-kun!"

Horo Horo blushed slightly, waving back at the girl. 'S-She's cute.' He frowned. 'Wait. Did she just call me-' But his thoughts were interrupted by none other…

"Super cute!" Ryu exclaimed with hearts appeared in his eyes.

Manta nervously laughed. "Ryu-san, you should st-"

"Please be my Best Place!" said Ryu as he knelt on one knee in front of the girl, a flower in his hand.

Manta sighed. "Just as I thought…"

The girl blinked a few times before she smiled happily at Ryu and took the flower from Ryu's hand.

The group stared in surprise with wide eyes and their jaws dropped as the girl leaned forward at Ryu…

'Don't tell me…?'

'T-That's impossible!'

'I never would have thought a girl would actually accept Ryu, let alone that young.'

'I…He…She…I wanna a girlfriend!'

…and tucked the flower behind Ryu's ear. 'Huh?'

The girl took out something from her pocket and placed it on Ryu's hand. "Here's a love charm I purposely get for you when I visited a shrine the other day!"

The boys anime fall at the unexpected scene while Ryu was frozen in stone with his jaw opened, the flower tucked behind Ryu withered during the process.

"Hey!"

"Huh?" Yoh looked up to see the girl standing in front of him.

"Could you do me a favor, Yoh-kun?" The girl smiled.

"Umm…sure…I guess." Yoh stood up and glanced unsurely at his friends who already stood up.

"Great! Then, let's go to America!"

Silence…

"WHAT?" The boys shouted in unison.

"What?" The girl smiled with question marks appearing above her head.

Ren took a step forward and scowled at the girl. "First of all, it's not for YOU to decide whether we're going to do the favor. It's US."

The girl gasped and her eyes widened. "The Great Tao Ren is using the 'us' word. Is the world going to end?"

Ren's flushed in embarrassment and anger.

"K-Kisama…" Ren was about to attack her but Yoh held him off.

"R-Ren… Calm down." Yoh trying his best to held Ren off.

"As if I will calm down! Let me go!" Ren shouted as he struggled to break free.

"Y-You know I can't do that, Ren."

Manta laughed nervously as he watched Ren cursing his head off and struggling from Yoh's grip. He looked up at the girl who was giggling at the scene. "Umm…may I know who are you?"

The girl stopped giggling and looked down at Manta. Manta squirmed uncomfortably from the intense stare that the strange girl is given her. Suddenly, the girl knelt down, took out a measuring tape from her pocket and started measuring Manta's height.

"Hmmm…80 cm." said the girl with a serious expression on her face. The boys' jaw were wide opened while Manta's face was red as he felt insulted because of the girl.

"What do you think you're doing?" Manta burst angrily.

The girl laughed. "I'm just measuring your height, Oyamada Manta-kun! You're so short even though you're 13." Manta felt more insulted and was about to say something to the girl when she playfully pinched his cheeks. "Even so, you're still cute."

Manta blushed because of the sudden comment.

Yoh laughed. "You're interesting, you know that?" The girl looked up to see Yoh standing, smiling at her.

"I do?"

"Yeah! Since you know our names, what's yours?" He asked, holding out his hand.

"Hmph! As if the girl would tell you her name. She keeps avoiding those questions ever since she suddenly appeared out of nowhere." Ren scowled as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"My name's Ayumu. I'm in the Shaman Fight like you guys!" She said happily to Yoh, shaking hands with him.

"What! I've been asking you who you are since the beginning and you just answer for this dull guy!" shouted Ren in anger at the girl and his spike hair grew taller while pointing his forefinger at Yoh.

"Wow!" The girl just stared at Ren's spike hair, fascinated on how it grew taller. "How did your spike grow like that? Your spike is like an anger meter."

"Cut the crap! And it's a tongari!" shouted Ren as his spike, I mean tongari grew taller.

"Oh," said Ayumu before directing her attention to Yoh. "Anyway, can I join you guys to America?"

"Don't ignore me!"

"Sure, why not?" Yoh cheerfully said to her.

"YOH!" shouted Ren.

Yoh laughed. "Calm down, Ren. You know what they say. The more, the merrier."

"For YOUR information, we're going to America by MY jet! So, it's for ME to decide whether she's coming with us or not! And the answer is NO!"

"You're going to ride on a jet to get to America, eh?" A voice called from behind.

They turned around to see Hao, his long hair and poncho swaying in the wind. Hao continued mocking them about how he could cross the Pacific Ocean using his Oversoul and their Oversoul was too weak. Angry, Horo Horo and Ryu talked back at him but Spirit of Fire attacked them. Ren tried to attack but Spirit of Fire beat him to it, sending Ren on the ground. Then, Spirit of Fire threw a punch at Yoh but Yoh dodged and attacked the Spirit of Fire but there was no effect on it and was backfired by another punch from the red giant spirit.

"Get stronger soon, Yoh." Hao walked up and told Yoh who was on the ground. "For me, the future Shaman King, Hao."

"Hao-sama, let's go already. This country is cold." Said Opacho, standing with the rest of Hao's follower.

"Yeah." Hao and his group took off on Spirit of Fire. He looked down at Yoh. "I'll be looking forward to it, Yoh!"

The boys watched Hao disappeared from their sight. They gradually relaxed and started to walk back to the jet but anime fall when they saw something that is unexpected.

The girl was…peacefully taking a nap on the ground!

As the girl was sleeping, a woman spirit materialized in front of the boys. The woman was wearing a traditional dress of a Miko. She has a long, straight brown hair that reaches past her waist. Her eyes were golden brown. Surprisingly, she bears resemblance to Ayumu.

"Ayumu, you can wake up now." The spirit spoke in a gentle voice.

The girl groaned a bit before she sat up and yawned, a hand covering her wide mouth.

"WHAT THE HELL! You were sleeping while we were fighting?" shouted Horo Horo in anger.

She blinked sleepily at Horo Horo to register what he just said. "Yeah!" She said and stood up, wiping some dust off from her coat.

"YEAH? YEAH! You could at least help us!"

"Shut up, Boro Boro! Even with that stupid girl's help, the results won't change," said Ren.

"You bastard! It's HORO HORO, not BORO BORO!"

The girl started laughing hard. "H-Horo Horo. B-Boro Boro. G-Good one."

"S-Shut up!" Horo Horo's cheeks were a little pinkish.

"I-I'm sorry. I couldn't help it.," she said as her giggles were brought under control. "But I like the name Horo Horo better. It suits you more."

Horo Horo blushed more.

"So, can I join you guys to America, Ren-kun?" She looked at Ren.

Ren scowled at the girl for a while but the girl just showed her happy-go-lucky smile. He then sighed in defeat, seeing that the girl would just ask why if he rejected her and would not give up. "Do as you wish."

"Thank you, Ren-kun!" The girl happily hugged Ren, who was shocked of the sudden contact. He slowly remembered that he was not alone; he roughly pushed the girl away from him. "DON'T SUDDENLY HUG ME, GIRL!"

The girl almost tripped but she managed to regain her stand. "You don't like a hug?"

"That's beside the point! You don't just suddenly hug people like that!"

"Oh yeah!" She gestured at the woman spirit who is floating beside her, ignoring Ren again. "This is my mother!"

"Your mother?" Everyone shouted in surprise.

"Yes, I am her mother. My name's Aiko. It's a pleasure to meet you children. Please look out for my daughter for me."

"All right! Now that we finish introducing ourselves, let's go!" She exclaimed and started walking towards the airplane followed by Aiko before the others got the chance to talk.

"Dude, we didn't even get to introduce our spirits yet…" said Horo Horo with a sweatdrop behind his head, watching the girl walked off happily. As if on cue, their spirits appeared.

"Kukuruku…" Kororo chirped and nodded to show that she agreed with Horo Horo.

"There's no need for that if you haven't noticed," said Ren calmly. "She already knew who we are and she should know our spirits as well."

"Are you sure, Bochama?" asked Bason.

"Now that you mention it, she DID mention our names," said Manta.

"Hey, Ryu! Don't you think the girl is…suspicious?" said Tokageroh.

"Do you think we should trust her, Danna?" asked Ryu skeptically, finally realizing that the girl somehow knew his real name.

Yoh laughed. "It's okay. A bad person cannot see spirits."

"But, Yoh-dono…" said Amidamaru, still not convinced.

"Don't worry, Amidamaru. It'll work out somehow." Yoh flashed his trademark smile and the boys dropped the subject.

And so, the boys said their goodbyes to Manta. Even Ayumu said her goodbyes to Manta not without a hug, leaving Manta dazed. Finally, the boys took off for America using the Tao jet with the newest additions into their group. And let's just say that their journeys were full of unexpected surprises because of the new recruit.

The End.


Translations:

Kisama – You (in an offensive way)

Olihime: Review please!